Missed fingerprint evidence could be key to justice for son of IRA victim

Fingerprint evidence that an IRA man was involved in a brutal sectarian murder should be enough to put the suspect before a court, the victim’s son believes.

John McCready, 58, was gunned down in north Belfast after being quizzed by the killers – who established he was making his way home from a club to the predominantly Protestant Westland Road area.

Despite having no connection with the security forces, the building contractor was shot several times with a magnum revolver and died 10 days later on February 6, 1976.

The killers escaped from the scene on the Cavehill Road in a stolen car fitted with false number plates.

Fingerprints belonging to two men – one later convicted of five IRA murders and the other in connection with IRA explosive offences – were found on one of the numberplates but police failed to match them to the suspects at the time.

They were only positively identified 35 years later when the case was reviewed by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET).

One of the two men died a number of years ago but the other is understood to be currently living in Belfast.

Although not named in the HET report issued to the victim’s only son, there was enough information to easily identify the two main suspects using other information sources.

Martyn McCready, who was aged in his late 20s when his father was murdered, is now seeking a meeting with the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in the hope that their original ‘no prosecution’ decision can be re-examined.

“I feel that the man whose fingerprints were found on the car is linked to the murder in some way. Whether he stole the car for the two men that murdered my father, or he was one of the two men in the car, he is connected and has questions to answer.

“But those questions are not being answered,” he said.

“I’m now 74 and I’d like to get justice for my father before I go. Quite simply, I want to see the person that did this behind bars.”

Mr McCready said he had been unable to pursue the matter while his mother was alive as she found the experience too upsetting.

“My mother had been through so much she didn’t want this to go any further. So, to respect her wishes, I didn’t take it any further,” he said.

However, by around 2011 Mr McCready was informed by the HET that the new fingerprint evidence had come to light and that the case was being progressed.

He was subsequently contacted by detectives from the PSNI’s Legacy Investigations Branch who explained that the surviving suspect had been arrested and questioned about the murder.

“He was held in Antrim [PSNI] station for a couple of days but he just sat there and didn’t say a word apparently,” Mr McCready said.

“The investigators then came back to me and said they were sorry but the case wasn’t going any further.

“They said the PPS had decided there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction. That was in April 2015.”

Mr McCready has been supported throughout the reinvestigation process by victims’ advocacy and support group the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF).

The HET report said the murder weapon – a .357 magnum Colt revolver – was recovered during a search of what is described as a ‘Republican Sinn Fein office’ in Belfast in March 1976.

At John McCready’s inquest hearing, the court was told how a female UDR soldier tasked to the scene attempted to comfort him as they travelled to hospital in an ambulance.

Despite his severe wounds he was able to question why he had been singled out by the gunmen, she told the coroner.

“Why did they shoot me? I’m not in anything,” Mr McCready is reported to have said.

His son is determined that the alleged killer should face a court – regardless of the passage of time.

“The men drove up beside him and asked him his name and where he was going. He told them he was going across to the Westland Road and then they shot him at point-blank range. He had about five or six bullets in him.

“He was able to talk to me in the hospital, but he couldn’t breathe properly so he was struggling to speak.

“One thing he did say was ‘look after your mum’. My mother stayed with me after the murder and she went through nightmare after nightmare – waking at night, screaming at the top of her voice,” Mr McCready said.

“The killers have no conscience. If I had done something like that I couldn’t live with myself.

“There are plenty of people who say ‘you have to move on,’ and tell people like me to forget about it, but the same people are not prepared to move on when it comes to Bloody Sunday for example.”

Mr McCready said he never once harboured any thoughts of revenge or retaliation after the murder.

“My father was very strict about different things, but he never had any bitterness in him,” he said.

“He was so much more than a father to me.

“He taught me things about the building trade and he was the best friend I could ever have had.

“And he taught me something I have taught my own children – ‘don’t have any hatred’ he would say.

“All I want is this man brought to trial and given the justice he deserves. Even if he’s only stuck in prison for a year or two.”